Southern Africa: Young women call for a safe future

23 October 2024: Young women have made an impassioned plea to the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) to secure a “safe and productive future” for the largest segment of the region’s population.

Representatives of the Women of the South Speak Out (WOSSO) Fellows, and Voice and Choice South Africa Fund (VCSA)  reminded law makers that “youth constitute 60% of the population of SADC, and young women are slightly more than half of these youth, in other words they are the largest single demographic in our region. Yet young women constitute the majority of those who are unemployed, missing in decision-making, and whose rights are violated through GBV.”

The submission profiled the harrowing case of a young woman age 16 in who fell pregnant as a result of rape in a place of safety in Lesotho, where ironically she had been placed by She Hive, a Voice and Choice Southern Africa grantee, to be safe. In a rare landmark case, She Hive succeeded in winning a court order using existing laws for the young woman to have a safe abortion.

The majority of women in the region, they noted “seek unsafe options which include drinking a range of plant or chemical based concoctions or inserting a stick, root or wire into the cervix.  Being poor, rural and young are all associated with higher risk of unsafe abortion.” While Africa accounts for about one quarter of unsafe abortions globally, it accounts for about two thirds of abortion related deaths.[1]

The team included two Women of the South Speak Out (WOSSO) Fellows, Veronika Haimbili from Namibia, an independent consultant and Vimbai Rugare Nyika from the Women’s Action Group in Zimbabwe, in partnership with Refiloe Harris from She HIVE Association.

All three are members of the recently launched Safe Abortion Alliance of Southern Africa (SAASA), a growing network of individuals and organisations campaigning for women’s right to voice and choice.

They made the submission in response to a call by  the SADC PF Standing Committee on Gender Equality, Women’s Advancement, and Youth Development (GEWAYD) public hearing on, among others, child marriage and gender-based violence.

The young women asked MPs to make sure that:

  • Every member state has a progressive ASRHR policy which enables us to access youth friendly SRHR information and services such as contraception;
  • Every member state engages in community awareness raising to reduce stigma and protect our rights to comprehensive ASRHR;
  • We are able to access safe abortion – preferably by encouraging member states’ parliaments to decriminalise abortion completely and by expanding access to good quality, self-managed, medication abortion.

The chairperson of the hearings congratulated them on the submission, which can be accessed here, and said that this work should be “exposed.”  Download the powerpoint presentation.

For further information, please contact: Tabetha Kanengoni-Malinga Manager, Women of the South Speak Out (WOSSO) Email: wossoprog@genderlinks.org.za

[1] Population Reference Bureau.  2021.  Abortion facts and figures 2021.  Washington, DC.  PRB.  https://www.prb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-safe-engage-abortion-facts-and-figures-media-guide.pdf Accessed 18 August, 2024.

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